The brother of murdered Liverpool-born Iraq hostage Ken Bigley said he welcomed a U-turn by Facebook over allowing grisly videos of beheadings to be posted on its site.

The social media giant sparked a storm when it lifted a temporary ban imposed in May on beheading videos, on the grounds that the site is used to share information about world events.

It later backed down after protests and said it would take down posts which celebrated or encouraged beheadings.

Stan Bigley, brother of murdered Ken Bigley

Iraqi militants held Ken, a 62-year-old engineer from Walton , for 22 days in 2004 before recording his gruesome death on camera and releasing it online.

Ken’s older brother Stan, 76, said while he welcomed Facebook’s belated recognition of the upset caused by such graphic content, the row brought back painful memories.

He said: “Children would have seen these videos and been affected by it. I don’t want to see things like that and I don’t want kids to either.

“It’s only done for greed and money. Ken died exactly nine years ago this month and something like this brings back awful memories.”

Facebook backed down after prime minister David Cameron condemned the decision to show the videos as “irresponsible” and said Facebook would have to explain it to worried parents.

The social media website later issued a statement saying it had “re-examined” the issue and removed a beheading video after concluding that it “improperly and irresponsibly glorifies violence”.

Facebook said it would “strengthen the enforcement” of policies on graphic content, removing posts which celebrate violence and taking into account whether they are being shared “responsibly” – for instance by including warnings about their content or blocking under-age viewers from accessing them.

Mr Cameron welcomed the move, but made clear he would be waiting to see whether the new approach was enough to protect children from being exposed to the material.